Annual Report 2017
DEAR USD CHANGEMAKERS It was another exciting year at the Changemaker Hub!
The 2016-17 academic year consisted of the Hub sponsoring or cosponsoring a variety of curricular and co-curricular opportunities for students, faculty and staff to practice changemaking. Over the last six years, USD has been a part of a vibrant learning community comprised of 41 institutions dedicated to institutional change. Throughout this time, the university’s commitment to the practice of changemaking has deepened and expanded in multiple ways. As the Envisioning 2024 Strategic Plan states, the goal is to infuse “the entire university with a spirit and practice of changemaking, where innovation and entrepreneurship lead to positive change.” The Hub is excited to help lead this effort as well as partner with the entire campus to meet this goal. This annual report provides a snapshot of how the Hub empowers students, faculty and staff to use their knowledge and experiences to develop ways to address the world’s most pressing problems. Students learn how best to distill their ideas, immerse themselves into community, conduct research, effectively scale programs for the greatest impact, write business plans and turn their concepts into solutions that create positive social impact locally and abroad. Our approach continues to focus on breaking down silos, bridging theory and practice, and developing a multi-disciplinary approach to implementing initiatives, all in the name of equipping changemakers with the skills they need to facilitate social impact and positive change. We look forward to 2017-18 as the Hub continues to support and catalyze the practice of changemaking at USD.
Mike Williams ’92
DIRECTOR, Changemaker Hub Associate Professor, Political Science and International Relations
Juan Carlos Rivas
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, Changemaker Hub
without learning is ignorance, learning “Action without action is selfish”
DANIELA PAPI-THORTON, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE SKOLL CENTRE FOR SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Practice Changemaking At USD, we believe that everyone can practice changemaking. We encourage our community to commit themselves to be in the service of addressing social issues that matter to you and exploring new ideas that will have a positive social impact. “To be in the service of” means that we approach our changemaking pursuits with humility and that we understand that our efforts are linked to those who have pursued social justice in the past and those who will follow our own efforts.
Envisioning 2024 sandiego.edu/envisioning-2024/ practicechangemaking
52%
of First-Year Students surveyed said one reason they came to USD was because it was a
CHANGEMAKER CAMPUS
20 1,255
Hub sponsored events in 2016-17 Students participated in Hub sponsored events
28
Faculty involved with Hub curricular/ co-curricular activities
468
Students involved with Hub curricular/ co-curricular activities
82
Applications for a Changemaker Scholarship
48
Entries to the Changemaker Challenge
8
Social Change Corps Teams
Changemaker Student Committee
The Changemaker Student Committee (CSC) is a student team organizing, promoting and supporting a culture of changemaking and innovation on campus. In the 2016-17 school year, the CSC continued the tradition of holding its signature event, My Story, a storytelling event where our community members share and are met with empathy and open hearts. This also marked the second year of the USD What I Be project, a photography project focusing on insecurities, vulnerability and diversity featuring 75 students, faculty and staff. The CSC also launched a series of new events, such as Dinner with Strangers and Movies with Meaning, opportunities for students and faculty to explore hot topics, meet new people and build community.
usually think about changemaking in terms of relationship “Ibuilding. I learned that Changemaking is about telling individual stories to spark community change. ”
– STUDENT ATTENDING “MY STORY 2017”
What I Be 2017 facebook.com/SteveRosenfieldPhotography/whatibe My Story and What I Be story sandiego.edu/changemaker/mystory My Story winning the SIC sandiego.edu/news/SIC
that changemaking also happens on a personal “Showing level instead of just a widescope and it’s ok/even good to focus on bettering your own self. ” - STUDENT ATTENDING “MY STORY 2017”
Changemaker Challenge For the second year in a row, the Changemaker Challenge theme was water. There were a total of 45 entries and more than 100 students participated in the event, which sparked ideas for student entries on a variety of topics, which ranged from creating a label to identifying products that are water efficient to an app that tracks water usage. The funding for this idea competition was made possible by the generosity of the Alcalá Alumni Fund. The top seven finalists competed on social media for a pool of $6,000. Based on the percentage of votes their videos earned, the teams received awards ranging from $200 to $1,600.
Awards story sandiego.edu/changemaker/challengewinners Challenge page changemakerchallenge.me/ Main speaker story sandiego.edu/changemaker/waterchallenger
Changemaker FEST More than 300 students, faculty and staff came together this October to celebrate our sixth year being designated as an Ashoka U Changemaker Campus. Our block party featured campus-wide opportunities to engage in social change, student-lead initiatives like Beluga Books and Soulr Cart as well as a community partners like Bosh Bosh and Compassion It.
FEST story sandiego.edu/changemaker/CMfest
Ashoka U Exchange The university was well represented with a delegation of 21 students, faculty and staff at the 2017 Ashoka U Exchange hosted by Miami Dade College in Miami, Florida. They attended workshops, lectures and conversations about innovation and changemaking in higher education and beyond. The trip energized our community in many ways and increased collaboration between faculty and students on changemaking.
Social Change Corps The Social Change Corps (SCC) was created to support students with ideas for changemaking projects and explore ways of addressing humanity’s urgent challenges. As members of the eight SCC teams this year, 28 students received funding and guidance as they explored social issues and social justice while actively participating in a community-based or social enterprise experience. The range of projects included developing an Empowering Women Retreat in collaboration with local high schools, exploring ways to support college-age students experiencing homelessness and creating an initiative to provide books for hospitalized children to boost literacy and imagination.
Overview sandiego.edu/changemaker/socialchangecorps Meet the teams sandiego.edu/changemaker/sccteams Beluga Books https://belugabooks.net
helped me understand that changemaking comes in many “Itforms. And being vulnerable so that others can relate and feel a sense of community is important for changemaking. ” - STUDENT PARTICIPATING IN SOCIAL CHANGE CORPS
Changemaker Scholarship This year, 82 students applied for the Changemaker Scholarship. Of these, 20 students won scholarships of more than $3,500 based on their essays describing their Changemaking practices. A total of $75,000 in scholarship money was generously donated by the USD Parent Fund to recognize students with the capacity to take action and create a positive social impact.
Jane Henderson, Changemaker Scholarship Recipient and Woman of Impact 2016 sandiego.edu/communications/news-events/henderson2016
understand now that changemaking starts with small “Icommunities and then can expand globally. ”
—STUDENT ATTENDING SOCIAL INNOVATION BOOTCAMP
Campus Collaboration Over the last year, the Changemaker Hub worked with dozens of partners on campus to promote, sustain and catalyze changemaking. Through our partnerships with Associated Students, Student Affairs, the Living Learning Communities, the Humanities Center and the Center for Educational Excellence, the Hub co-sponsored many events for students, such as My Story, What I Be, USD Votes, and the incorporation of the USD Just Read program into the curriculum. To stimulate more innovative initiatives on campus, the Hub collaborated with the United Front Multicultural Center, the Mulvaney Center and Yalla, one of USD’s community partners, to facilitate the Social Justice Lab. This lab was a day-long Human Centered Design workshop exploring ways to address social justice issues faced by San Diego’s refugee community.
Maintaining a Resourceful Changemaker Campus sandiego.edu/changemaker/cmpartners Entrepreneurship Puts the Maker in Changemaker sandiego.edu/changemaker/entrepreneurship
learning the importance of doing research and knowing “I’m the ins and outs of the issues before working to make some sort of change. ”
—STUDENT ATTENDING “DINNER WITH STRANGERS”
Impact Linda Vista Initiative With the support of a grant received from U.S. Bank, and the assistance of the Mulvaney Center, 10 faculty and more than 260 students partnered with eight community partners in Linda Vista in 2016-17. Through this initiative, the faculty and students accelerated and documented programs incorporating social innovation and changemaking practices. While USD has built a strong relationship with the Linda Vista community over many years, this initiative provided an opportunity for USD faculty and students to deepen their collaboration with many community leaders by highlighting their incredible work.
Impact Linda Vista Initiative Ilvisd.org youtube.com/watch?v=S8uKFQrcUP4&sns=em
Changemaker Faculty Champions Each year, the deans from the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the Kroc School and the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, as well as the director of the Humanities Center, select faculty members who best epitomize what it means to support and practice changemaking. This year, the Hub was honored to recognize Emilie Amrein, Lisa Nunn, Sue Lowery, Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, Andrea Godfrey Flynn, Aarti Ivanic, Gordon Hoople, and Reyes Quezada. There are now a total of 25 faculty who are recognized as Faculty Changemaker Champions. These faculty inspire their students and their colleagues to become involved in projects, courses and community engagement opportunities that seek to make a positive social impact.
sandiego.edu/changemaker/faculty
Faculty Engagement Faculty from a variety of disciplines provided opportunities for their students to practice changemaking in 2016-17. For example, Professor James Ong required his students in Philosophy 332 (Business Ethics) to interview social entrepreneurs in San Diego and Professor Malachi Black encouraged his students in English 391 (Advanced Poetry Writing) to display their water-related poetry on campus.
http://digital.sandiego.edu/phil332
Ashoka Renewal This academic year marked the sixth year since the University of San Diego was designated as an Ashoka Changemaker Campus. As part of a renewal process for this designation, the Changemaker Hub completed an extensive review of its structures and programs, which included a site visit consisting of Ashoka staff, change leaders from other universities and community members.
were also impressed with the Hub’s work nurturing “We student interest in social innovation and changemaking. The passion the students demonstrated in the work they are doing, and the quality of the programs they presented are both testaments to the strong culture and support system the Hub has in place to support student-led programs.
- ASHOKA U RENEWAL TEAM
”
The feedback we received from Ashoka highlights the extraordinary dedication of the entire campus has to promoting changemaking and social innovation. The renewal letter states that “One of the most important aspects of University of San Diego’s work in social innovation and changemaking is the depth and breadth of its numerous co-curricular and curricular offerings” and that they were “impressed to see multiple entryways into changemaking available for students, staff, and faculty.” We are very proud of the strides we have taken as a university to promote social change and we know that these efforts will only expand and deepen through the Envisioning 2024 Strategic Plan.
Living our Mission sandiego.edu/news/livingourmission
What’s Happening in 2017-18?
CHANGEMAKER BLOCK PARTY
October 12, 2017
MY STORY
October 18, 2017
IMPACT CAREER FAIR
October 26, 2017
DESIGN THINKING CRASH COURSE
October 28, 2017
CHANGEMAKER CHALLENGE DEADLINE
November 13, 2017
WHAT I BE?
February 12, 2018
SOCIAL JUSTICE LAB
March 10, 2018
Learn more about the Changemaking Minor launching in Fall 2017 at: http://catalogs.sandiego.edu/undergraduate/ colleges-schools/arts-sciences/changemaking/#text
WEB AND SOCIAL MEDIA
sandiego.edu/changemaker facebook.com/usdchangemakerhub twitter.com/usdchangemaker instagram.com/usdchangemakerhub CHANGEMAKER HUB OFFICES
Student Life Pavilion, Room 320 and Serra Hall, Room 200D (Humanities Center) PHONE
(619) 260-2798 EMAIL
Mike Williams: jmwilliams@sandiego.edu Juan Carlos Rivas: jcrivas@sandiego.edu